The private space race is starting to finally, finally, heat up. True, companies like SpaceX have been around for years, but the move to actually get our collective ass into the Big Black have been moving painfully slowly.

Now, we actually have another competitor, using a classic method to get into space: Alliant Techsystems, and their multistage rocket.

The key thing here, though, is that Liberty, their attempt to get off the ground, is a lot cheaper than most other options. It’s an off-the-shelf rocket, if you will.

Essentially it’s made out of other space programs’ spare parts: solid rocket boosters from Constellation 1, a liquid booster for its second stage from Ariane 5, and NASA’s composite crew module, which Alliant seems to have continued to develop after licensing from NASA.

The key thing is that since Alliant doesn’t have to develop its own technologies, or at least only has to tweak existing ones, this multi-stage rocket doesn’t have any untested components. So it’s not only cheap, it’s less risky to use than untested technologies.

Now, let’s look into that Mars mission, guys.

image courtesy Alliant Techsystems

Itching for some new Resident Evil 6 information? Well, the latest issue of Playstation Magazine delivered just that — here are some of the new tidbits revealed in PSM…

- The game will feature the return of multiple campaigns, which you can play in any order similar to the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. This time there will actually be three campaigns, one starring Leon, one starring Chris and one starring Sherry and Jake (the son of series villain, Albert Wesker).

- Zombies can carry pipes, axes and guns which you can steal and turn against them Double Dragon-style.

- Mercenaries mode will come with the game — no unlocking or DLC required.

- You can now move white shooting, use cover, and dive to the ground and shoot from your back.

Despite all this extra maneuverability, RE6 director Yoshiaki Hirabayashi says the game will actually be significantly less action-based than RE5. I guess we shall see. Hit the jump to check out some new screenshots of Resident Evil 6 and some rumors about a possible new 3DS Resident Evil game…

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“Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” are two very, very funny movies that combine genres that shouldn’t work together (romantic slacker comedy and zombie movie, and psychological thriller and idiot buddy cop movie, respectively) and turn them into sheer genius. But Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost have all been in pretty heavy demand on their own, and we despaired of ever seeing them together again.

Well, apparently they heard our cries of sadness, because they’re getting back together for “The World’s End”.

Apparently it’s about five childhood friends getting together to go on a bar crawl, ending with a visit to the pub “The World’s End”.

Although, if rumors are to be believed…the title isn’t just figurative. The world really is at stake. AICN hints that there’s something to do with the Cold War in the movie, but we’ll know for sure spring 2013.

Of course, this means “Ant-Man” is delayed. Again. But, hey, at least it’s for a good cause.

image courtesy Edgar Wright’s Twitter, with a little revision.

At the Knowsley Safari Park outside Liverpool, England, the baboons were given the chance to play around with a Hyundai to put its child-proofing to the test. Good. It’s about time we all just acknowledged that having a couple of kids in your life is exactly like getting attacked by a f–kload of baboons.

On the other hand, is it a good idea to let primates, who are assuredly plotting against us, get behind the wheel? They are very crafty little beasts. For example, below is a picture from the Hyundai test and one more picture of the inevitable future if we let the baboons get too comfortable breaking into cars.

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The Dead Space series is kind of an oddity — in amongst EA’s usual line-up of soulless annual sports updates and bland shooters there’s this great, genuinely scary horror franchise set in a really detailed, well-realized universe. Unfortunately, while it’s arguably EA’s best series, the Dead Space games don’t exactly sell blockbuster numbers, and EA isn’t a company to bet on anything but the surest of sure things. Basically every time a new Dead Space game comes out, there’s a very good chance it may be the last.

Well, thankfully it seems as though the Dead Space series is being given at least one more chance, as EA has announced Dead Space 3 is on the way. The game will be fully unveiled at this year’s E3 and will be available sometime before the end of EA’s current fiscal year (which ends March 2013).

Not much is known about the game yet, although according to IGN, there will be a bit of a scenery change in store, with the creepy space stations of previous Dead Space games being replaced an ice-planet environment. Also, series main character Isaac’s mental deterioration will continue, with him developing a full-on split personality. Not surprising — only so many times necromorphs can jump out of air ducts at you, before you invent a second personality to watch your back.

via Technabob & IGN

Make me a life-sized Tauntaun one so I can crawl inside!

Once in a while we like to highlight a parent who’s doing geeky, awesome, creative stuff for their kids, like drawing on their lunchbags, making cool bento, or cosplaying every morning to wave at the bus. Nathan Shields of Saipancakes joins that illustrious company with the intricate pancake art he makes to entertain his kids at breakfast. Shields is a former math teacher who is now an illustrator and a stay-at-home dad in Saipan, the largest landmass of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Please don’t ask me to locate any of that on a map.

Inspired by his own mother, who’d create “monster pancakes” for him as a boy, Shields decided to try and impress his own young children. A former math teacher, many of Shields’ designs seem to have some geeky inspiration behind them — get a load of the “Star Wars” designs or the fractals, a mathematical concept that when repeated results in a complex pattern. Shields is able to achieve such a fine level of detail by using a baster, which affords him much better control over the runny pancake batter. [HuffPo]

Below you’ll find montages of some of our favorite themed sets of pancakes at Saipancakes. Man, these are much better than the pancake designs my dad used to make. I couldn’t tell what they were supposed to be, but dad always said they represented “a pregnancy test that shouldn’t have been positive.” Seems esoteric for a pancake.

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